Chronicles of coaching American football in Italy (2008, 2009 & 2018), in Sweden (2010, 2016 & 2017), in Switzerland (2012), winning a Division III National Championship in France (2012-13), in Spain (2015 & 2016) and in Mexico (2017) as well as walking the Camino de Santiago in August-September of 2010.

About Me

I have been married to Laurie for over 46 years. Our oldest son, Andy, lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with his wife Jenn and their son Kevin. Our youngest son Mike lives in Oxnard, California with his wife Vanessa and their kids Jacob and Mary. Although I retired from teaching in June of 2007, the 2015 football season marked my 45th year of coaching football at five high schools in Southern California's Ventura County - Thousand Oaks, Westlake, Rio Mesa, Buena and Newbury Park. In 2008, I opted to try something totally different in my coaching career and started coaching in Europe. My EuroBall stops have been in Catania, Sicily in 2008 & '09, Hässleholm, Sweden in 2010, Thun, Switzerland in 2012, Lyon, France in 2012-13 with the 12-0 National Champion Bron-Villeurbanne Falcons, Murcia, Spain in 2015, Rivas, Spain in 2016, Upplands-Väsby, Sweden in the Spring of 2016 & '17, in Mexico to coach the Europe Warriors in Aug. & Dec. 2017 and now in 2018 in Varese, Italy. Join me as I explore and chronicle my newest adventures coaching American football in Europe. My European touring also included a 500 mile Pilgrimage Walk on the Camino de Santiago in Spain in 2010.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

The SLOW Train to London

Finally, it was time to board our train for the 200 mile, two hour trip to London from York.

London is our last two night stop on the Grand Tour before flying home on British Air to Los Angeles on Wednesday.

The Grand Central Line was our carrier

We were anxious to get going because our friends from Seattle, Mark and Susie Johnson and their daughters, Sophie and Mallory would be there at the start of their European holiday.

About 40 minutes into the run we started to inexplicably slow down and then come to a stop in the middle of nowhere. It seems that our engine was malfunctioning. After a 30 minute delay, the engineer got the engine going again. YAHOO!

Our View

Twenty minutes later it happened again leaving us with this view out of our window for the next 2 1/2 hours. The engine was REALLY dead and the journey was officially classified as a "Failure" by the company officials at the end of the first hour of this second delay.

We would have to wait for another engine to show up to push us to the next station so that we could all disembark and wait for the next train to London King's Cross station.

Where were we?

The Grantham Station, that's where!

The engine was only TWENTY YARDS from the station and our car was about 100 yards from it. The problem was, that for safety reasons, we were not allowed off the train!

So we sat and sat and sat.

At last the new engine arrived!

Thirty seconds later we started to unload the train to start our wait for the next train to take us to our destination.

We finally arrived in London three hours late.

London's Caring Hotel

Our huge window opens up and leads to our balconey.

Jacko

According to our cab driver, Michael Jackson always stayed in the flats behind these trees just down the streets from us when he came to London.

I look forward to your return to Camarillo and your renewed participation in the Rio Mesa breakfast club. At the same time I am going to miss your daily blog which allowed me to vicariously visit so many exciting places. Thanks for sharing your adventures with us.